Media in Canada
Encyclopedia
Canada
has a well-developed media
sector, but its cultural output — particularly in English
films, television shows, and magazines — is often overshadowed by imports from the United States
. Television, magazines, and newspapers are primarily for-profit corporations based on advertising
, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. Nevertheless, both the television broadcasting and publications sectors require a number of government interventions to remain profitable, ranging from regulation that bars foreign companies in the broadcasting industry to tax laws that limit foreign competition in magazine advertising.
In the broadcasting sector, Canada has a government-funded broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
/Société Radio-Canada, which operates radio and TV networks in English and French. As well, some provincial governments offer their own public educational TV broadcast services as well, such as Ontario's TVOntario
and Quebec's Télé-Québec
. Given Canada's small market and its position next to the dominant producer of feature films, the Canadian film industry receives substantial assistance from the government. In the 2000s, about half of the budget of a typical Canadian film came from various federal and provincial government sources.
Reporters Without Borders
ranked Canadian media 21st out of 178th nations in Press Freedom Index
.
near Washington, D.C.
, Fessenden said "one - two - three - four, is it snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen? If it is, would you telegraph back to me?" Mr. Thiessen, one mile away, confirmed, and radio broadcasting was born.
Fessenden presented radio's first program on Christmas
Eve 1906. With the assistance of his wife Helen, her friend and an assistant, he broadcast from Boston. Wireless operators on ships in the harbour heard the inventor play "O Holy Night
" on his violin
and Helen and her friend sing Christmas carols.
The history of Canadian media performers goes back to the first days of radio. In the 1940s an association was formed called the Radio Artists of Toronto Society - RATS. Radio performers in Montreal
, Winnipeg
and Vancouver
also organized to fight for artists' rights, working conditions and better fees. In 1943, the Association of Canadian Radio Artists (ACRA) was formed as a loose national coalition of actors' groups. Over the years, ACRA evolved to become the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists, the Canadian Council of Authors and Artists, the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists and, in 1984, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.
The Canadian Broadcasting Act, historically and in its modern conception, is based on the fact that since the start of the 20th century, it was important for broadcasters to ensure that information flowed freely and reflected the diversity of Canadian points of view, as opposed to the classic approach, which gives media owners more freedom to express their views. "The Canadian broadcasting system as we know it today would probably not exist if we had allowed the marketplace to regulate ownership rights."
broadcasting industry is split between public and private ownership. Canada currently has 130 originating television stations, which broadcast on 1,456 transmitters across the country, on both the VHF and UHF
bands.
In addition to the public Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
/Société Radio-Canada, which operates both English and French television networks, there are four major private TV networks. CTV
and Global
broadcast in English, and are available throughout the country. TVA
and V broadcast in French and are available over the air only in Quebec (and some communities in Ontario and New Brunswick which are near the Quebec border), although TVA is available across Canada on cable. Radio-Canada (the French division of the CBC), TVA and V function in the particular cultural context of Quebec television. Most network stations are owned and operated by the networks themselves, although all networks have some affiliates with different ownership.
In addition, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
, a service devoted mainly to programming from the First Nations
, is considered a network by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, although the network airs terrestrially only in the three Canadian territories, and is available only on cable in most of Canada.
There are, as well, a number of smaller television system
s:
Several provinces maintain provincial public broadcasting networks in addition to the CBC:
Unlike in the United States, where a statewide public network is usually the state's primary PBS
member station, the provincially-owned public systems in Canada are not CBC affiliates, but distinct networks which offer entirely different programming schedules.
Only CBC/Radio-Canada, TVA and APTN are officially considered national networks by the CRTC, while V is a provincial network in Quebec. CTV and Global are legally considered "television services" even though they operate as networks for all practical purposes.
As well, there are a few independent stations, including CKXT
in Toronto
, CFTU
in Montreal
, CJON
in St. John's
and CJIL
in Lethbridge
. However, most of these are not general entertainment stations like independent stations in the United States, but are instead specialty community channels or educational services. CKXT and CJON are the only independent commercial stations currently operating in Canada, although CJON sublicenses a mix of programming from the main commercial networks rather than purchasing program rights independently.
TV station callsigns in Canada are usually made up of four letters, although two stations have three call letters (CKX
in Brandon
and CKY
in Winnipeg
) and some (primarily CBC-owned Radio-Canada stations) have five. The first call letter is always C, and callsigns of privately owned television stations start with the two-letter combinations
of CF, CH, CI, CJ, or CK. The combinations CG, CY, CZ and several combinations beginning with V and X are also assigned to Canada, but to date no Canadian television station has ever been licensed to take a call sign within those ranges.
CBC-owned stations use call letters beginning with the combination CB (through a special agreement with the government of Chile
); private affiliates of the CBC use the same combinations as other private stations. The CBC has also sometimes directly acquired former private affiliate stations; these usually (although not always) retain their historic call sign rather than changing to a CB call.
While Canadian TV stations are technically required to identify themselves over the air by their call letters, the rule is rarely enforced by the CRTC. As a result, many TV stations never use their call letters for any purpose other than official CRTC business, and are instead identified by a brand such as CTV Northern Ontario
, OMNI.1
or Global BC
.
There is no clear rule for the call letters of rebroadcasters—some are labelled by the call-letters of the originating station, followed by a number, while others have their own distinct call letters. Low-power repeater transmitters (LPRTs) have their own unique callsign format, which consists of the letters CH followed by four numbers. Some rebroadcast transmitters are licensed as semi-satellites, which are licensed to air separate commercials (and, on rarer occasions, a limited amount of distinct programming) targeted to their community of license.
Canada also has a large number of cable channels. For a more extensive list of Canadian TV broadcast outlets, see List of Canadian television channels.
Although all broadcast networks in Canada are required to produce and air some Canadian content
, only the English and French networks of the CBC
run predominantly Canadian-produced schedules. (The English network does run some imported programming, such as Coronation Street
, Doctor Who
and Emmerdale
, the game shows Wheel of Fortune
and Jeopardy!
, and strip reruns of The Simpsons
and Arrested Development.) Both CTV
and Global
have at times faced criticism over their level of commitment to producing and airing Canadian programming. Both networks often find it easier to purchase rights to hit American series than to invest in Canadian productions, which are often prohibitively costly for the comparatively small size of the Canadian market. The French-language networks traditionally have had less difficulty meeting their Canadian content obligations, as the language difference makes Francophone audiences much more readily receptive to home-grown programming than to dubbed American imports.
Digital television
is an emerging technology in Canada. Although some TV stations have begun broadcasting digital signals in addition to their regular VHF or UHF broadcasts, this is not yet as widespread as in the United States
. Although most markets have digital channel assignments already in place, to date digital broadcasts have only launched in the largest metropolitan area
s. Digital television sets are available in Canadian stores, but are not widely owned by consumers at this time.
Several broadcasters, including the CBC, have argued that there is no viable business case for a comprehensive digital conversion strategy in Canada. At CRTC hearings in 2007 on the future direction of regulatory policy for television, broadcasters proposed a number of strategies, including funding digital conversion by eliminating restrictions on the amount of advertising that television broadcasters are permitted to air, allowing terrestrial broadcasters to charge cable viewers a subscription fee similar to that already charged by cable specialty channels, permitting license fee
s similar to those which fund the BBC
in the United Kingdom
, or eliminating terrestrial television broadcasting entirely and moving to an exclusively cable-based distribution model.
In May 2007, the CRTC set August 31, 2011 as the deadline for digital conversion in Canada. This is approximately two years later than the cutoff date in the United States. The CRTC ultimately decided to relax restrictions on advertising as the funding mechanism. However, a CRTC statement issued in June 2008 indicated that as of that date, only 22 digital transmitters had been fully installed across the entire country, and expressed the regulator's concern that Canada's television broadcasters were not adequately preparing for the shift to digital broadcasting.
is a very common method of television programming delivery in Canada. Many Canadian cities have cable penetration rates of 90 per cent or more of television households.
There are currently 739 licensed cable distributors in Canada. This significant decline from over 2000 just a few years ago is attributable both to major cable companies acquiring smaller distributors and to a recent change in CRTC rules by which independent cable operators with fewer than 2,000 subscribers are no longer required to operate under full CRTC licenses. (However, the CRTC does retain some regulatory authority over these operators. This is an exemption granted by the CRTC to previously licensed companies that continue to meet certain conditions, and does not mean that anybody can simply set up their own small cable company without CRTC approval.)
Major Canadian cable companies include Rogers
, Shaw, Cogeco
, Vidéotron
and EastLink
/Persona. Most Canadian cities are served by only one cable company per market; in the few cities that are served by more than one cable company, each company is restricted to a specific geographical division within the market. For instance, in Hamilton
, Cogeco Cable, Mountain Cablevision
and Source Cable
are all licensed operators, but each has a monopoly in a specific area of the city.
However, two major companies offer direct broadcast satellite
delivery as an alternative to cable: Bell TV, which is a division of BCE Inc., and Shaw Direct, which is a division of Shaw Cable. Grey market
DBS dishes can also be obtained from American services such as DirecTV
and Dish Network
, but as these are not licensed Canadian providers, stores that sell those packages—and users who buy them—are at risk of criminal charges.
In some remote communities in the Territories (Yukon
, Northwest Territories
, Nunavut
), cable delivery is prohibitively costly, so similar services are offered through MMDS technology.
A basic cable package in English Canada traditionally includes:
A further set of Canadian and American special interest channels are offered as extended cable packages, which are available for additional fees. In the past, cable companies have engaged in the controversial practice of negative option billing
, in which a subscriber is automatically given and billed for the new services unless he or she specifically declines them, but this is now illegal.
As well, a package of pay TV channels is also available for further fees, including movie networks such as The Movie Network
, Movie Central
, Super Channel and Super Écran
, and American superstation
s such as WSBK
, WPIX
, WGN
and KTLA
(which are often CW or MyNetworkTV affiliates.) These services, however, require a descrambler box.
Cable companies now offer digital cable
packages in most Canadian cities, including a number of channels which have been licensed exclusively for digital package distribution. Digital cable also typically includes a range of audio broadcast services such as Galaxie and Max Trax. In some markets, digital cable service may also include local radio stations; where this is offered, it has largely replaced the availability of cable FM service. Digital cable, however, is provided only if a customer chooses to subscribe to that package.
Although this is sometimes controversial, Canadian cable companies are required by the CRTC to practice simultaneous substitution
when a Canadian channel and a non-Canadian channel (which is usually American) are airing the same program at the same time. Programming on an American service may also be blocked if it has significant bearing on a Canadian legal matter (one episode of Law & Order
, inspired by the trials of Paul Bernardo
and Karla Homolka
, was blocked in Canada) or if it interferes with a Canadian channel's broadcast rights (such as James Bond
movies airing on Spike TV
; the Canadian broadcast rights are held by Bell Globemedia
.)
Many cable companies also offer high speed cable Internet
service.
As with television stations, radio callsigns in Canada are made up of four letters beginning with the two-letter combinations
of CF, CH, CI, CJ, or CK, although a few stations use three-letter callsigns. In addition to private stations CKX
and CKY
, some CBC stations have three-letter callsigns, generally in major cities where the stations first aired in the 1930s. Newer CBC stations have normal four-letter callsigns, however. As with CBC television, CBC radio uses callsigns beginning with CB, through a special arrangement with the government of Chile
. A few exceptions, such as CKSB
in Winnipeg and CJBC
in Toronto
, exist where the CBC acquired an existing station with a historically significant callsign.
The combinations CG, CY, CZ and several combinations beginning with V and X are also assigned to Canada. Only four Canadian radio stations, all in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
, have taken call signs in those ranges. Three of these stations, VOAR
, VOWR and VOCM
, began broadcasting before Newfoundland was a Canadian province, and retained their VO call letters when Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation
in 1949. The other station, VOCM-FM
, adopted the callsign in 1981 because of its ownership association with VOCM. With the exception of VOCM-FM, radio stations licensed in Newfoundland after 1949 use the same CF-CK range as other Canadian stations.
The future of VO callsigns in Canada is unknown. It would not be at all unusual for Industry Canada
to simplify all callsigns used in Canada as part of the ongoing modernization and simplification of domestic telecom regulations.
There is no clear rule for the call letters of repeater stations—some repeaters are labelled by the call-letters of the originating station, followed by a number, while others have their own distinct call letters. Low-power repeater transmitters (LPRTs) have their own unique callsign format, which consists of the letters VE or VF followed by four numbers.
As of 2010, the five largest major commercial radio broadcast groups in Canada are; Astral Media
, Newcap Broadcasting
, Rogers Communications
, Corus Entertainment
, and Bell Media. However, many smaller broadcasters operate radio stations as well. Most genres of music are represented on the Canadian commercial radio spectrum, including pop
, rock
, hip hop
, country
, jazz
and classical. News, sports, talk radio and religious stations are also available in many cities. In addition, many Canadian universities and colleges have licensed campus radio
stations, and some communities also have community radio
stations or Christian radio stations licensed to non-profit groups or co-operatives.
As well, the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
operates four national radio networks, two each in English
and French
. The English Radio One
and the French Première Chaîne provide news and information programming to most communities in Canada, regardless of size, on either the AM or FM band. The English Radio 2 and French Espace musique
provide arts and culture programming, including classical music and opera, and are always on FM, generally serving larger communities only.
Music-based commercial radio stations in Canada are mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to reserve at least 35 per cent of their playlists for Canadian content
, although exemptions are granted in some border cities (e.g. Windsor, Ontario
) where the competition from American stations threatens the survival of Canadian broadcasters, and for stations whose formats may not have enough Canadian recordings available to meet the 35 per cent target (e.g. classical, jazz or pop standards).
In recent years, a notable trend in Canadian radio has been the gradual abandonment of the AM band, with many AM stations applying for and receiving authorization from the CRTC to convert to the FM band. In some Canadian cities, in fact, the AM band is now either nearly or entirely vacant. Because Canada is more sparsely populated than the United States, the limitations of AM broadcasting (particularly at night, when the AM dial is often overwhelmed by distant signals) have a much more pronounced effect on Canadian broadcasters. AM radio stations have the additional protection that cable
companies which offer cable FM services are required by the CRTC to distribute all locally-available AM stations through conversion to a cable FM signal, but cable FM only accounts for a small percentage of radio listeners in Canada.
Digital audio broadcasting
, or DAB, is an emerging technology in Canada. Although there are currently 73 licensed digital audio broadcasters in Canada, not many consumers yet own digital radios, and the existing digital audio broadcast signals duplicate AM or FM broadcasts. No Canadian radio broadcaster currently offers an exclusively DAB signal.
On November 1, 2004, the CRTC began hearing applications for satellite radio
services. Three applications were filed: one by XM Radio Canada
, one by Sirius Canada
, and one by the partnership of CHUM Limited
and Astral Media
. These services, which were approved by the CRTC on June 16, 2005, were Canada's first official satellite radio services, although a small grey market
already existed for American satellite radio receivers. Sirius and XM both launched in December 2005. The CHUM-Astral service, however, was never launched, and its license expired on June 16, 2007; CHUM stated that its business plan was based in part on the expectation that in the interests of Canadian content, the CRTC would have rejected the Sirius and XM applications, approving only the CHUM-Astral service. The two active services, XM and Sirius, merged into Sirius XM Canada
in 2011, several months after a similar merger between their American counterparts.
, along with community and neighbourhood weeklies. In large cities which have more than one daily newspaper, usually at least one daily is a tabloid format. Bilingual cities like Montreal
and Ottawa
have important papers in both French and English.
Canada currently has two major "national" newspapers, The Globe and Mail
and the National Post
. Le Devoir
, though not widely read outside Quebec, is the French-language counterpart to the national newspapers.
The newspaper with the highest circulation overall is the Toronto Star
, while the newspaper with the highest readership per capita is the Windsor Star
(with the Calgary Herald
running a very close second).
Canadian newspapers are mostly owned by large chains. The largest of these is the CanWest News Service
chain, owned by CanWest. Quebecor
owns many tabloid newspapers through its Sun Media
subsidiary, including Le Journal de Montréal
and the Toronto Sun
.
At various times there have been concerns about concentration of newspaper ownership, notably in 1970 and 1980 with two commissions, the Davey Committee
on combines and the Kent Royal Commission on Newspapers
respectively, and most recently when Conrad Black
's Hollinger
acquired the Southam newspapers in the late 1990s. When Hollinger sold its Canadian properties, however, many of their smaller-market newspapers were in fact purchased by a variety of new ownership groups such as Osprey Media
, increasing the diversity of newspaper ownership for the first time in many years.
The 1980s and 1990s have seen the emergence of city-based alternative weekly
newspapers, geared toward a younger audience with coverage of the arts and alternative news. In recent years, many of these weeklies have also been acquired or driven out of business by conglomerates like Canwest, Quebecor
and Brunswick News
. Smaller newspapers like The Dominion
, publishing primarily online but in a newspaper format, have attempted to fill gaps in Canada's journalistic coverage while avoiding the vulnerabilities of the previous generation of alternative media
.
In the 2000s, a number of online news and culture magazines have launched to provide alternative sources of journalism
. Some important online publications include rabble.ca, The Tyee
, Vigile, CBC Radio 3
/Bande à part
and SooToday.com
.
n audiences, with Alliance Atlantis
and Lions Gate Entertainment
in particular enjoying significant successes in recent years. Montreal
, Toronto
and Vancouver
are major production centres, with Vancouver being the second largest film and television production centre in North America (after Los Angeles
). The Toronto International Film Festival
is considered one of the most important events in North American film, showcasing both Canadian talent and Hollywood films.
Alliance Atlantis has become by far the largest and most successful Canadian film studio, both as a film and television production house (the company's television properties include Due South
, This Hour Has 22 Minutes
and C.S.I.
), and as the major Canadian distributor of independent American and international films. Lions Gate Entertainment has also become a major player in recent years.
Canada also produces films of a characteristically "Canadian" nature, and of all Canadian cultural industries, this segment of the film industry has the hardest time escaping the shadow of its (North) American counterpart. Between the marketing budgets of mainstream films, and the largely American-controlled film distribution networks, it has been nearly impossible for most distinctively Canadian films to break through to a wide audience. In many Canadian cities, in fact, moviegoers don't even have the option of seeing such films, as there aren't any theatres showing them. As a result, a Canadian film is usually considered a runaway hit if it makes as little as $1 million at the box office.
French Canadian films, on the other hand, are often more successful—as with French-language television, the language difference makes Quebec audiences much more receptive to Canadian-produced film. In most years, the top-grossing Canadian film is a French-language film from Quebec.
As a result of the economic challenges involved in Canadian film production, film funding is often provided by government bodies such as Telefilm Canada
, and CBC television is often a Canadian film's most lucrative potential market. However, there is an established network of film festivals which also provide important marketing and audience opportunities for Canadian films. In addition to Toronto's film festival, the smaller Vancouver International Film Festival
features films from around the world, and festivals in Montreal
, Quebec
and Greater Sudbury, Ontario
—among other cities—are also important opportunities for Canadian filmmakers to gain exposure among more populist film audiences.
One particular film production house, the National Film Board of Canada
, has become internationally famous for its animation and documentary production.
, which made its name in the 1970s as the leading publisher of English language Canadian literature
. English Canada also has many smaller publishing houses, including Coach House Press, the Porcupine's Quill
, House of Anansi, Key Porter Books
, Hidden Brook Press, and Douglas & McIntyre
. Numerous American and British publishers, including Random House
, HarperCollins
, Alfred A. Knopf
and Penguin Books
, also have Canadian divisions.
Major francophone publishers in Quebec include Bibliothèque québécoise, Alire, Québec-Amérique, Éditions Guérin and Groupe Beauchemin. Several small francophone publishers also operate outside of Quebec, including Éditions Le Nordir and Prise de parole
.
Canada's largest English science fiction
genre publisher is EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, which now also owns the Tesseract Books imprint, well known for producing excellent Canadian speculative fiction.
A notable controversy in Canadian magazine publishing in recent years has been the existence of split run magazines, where a title published in another country, such as TIME
or Sports Illustrated
, is republished in Canada with a few pages of special Canadian content, in order to take advantage of Canadian advertising
sales revenues. The government of Canada imposed a special excise tax on split run publications in 1995 to discourage the practice, although this continues to be controversial.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
has a well-developed media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
sector, but its cultural output — particularly in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
films, television shows, and magazines — is often overshadowed by imports from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Television, magazines, and newspapers are primarily for-profit corporations based on advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. Nevertheless, both the television broadcasting and publications sectors require a number of government interventions to remain profitable, ranging from regulation that bars foreign companies in the broadcasting industry to tax laws that limit foreign competition in magazine advertising.
In the broadcasting sector, Canada has a government-funded broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
/Société Radio-Canada, which operates radio and TV networks in English and French. As well, some provincial governments offer their own public educational TV broadcast services as well, such as Ontario's TVOntario
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
and Quebec's Télé-Québec
Télé-Québec
Télé-Québec is a French language public educational television network in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known legally as Société de télédiffusion du Québec , it is a provincial crown corporation owned by the Government of Quebec...
. Given Canada's small market and its position next to the dominant producer of feature films, the Canadian film industry receives substantial assistance from the government. In the 2000s, about half of the budget of a typical Canadian film came from various federal and provincial government sources.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
ranked Canadian media 21st out of 178th nations in Press Freedom Index
Press Freedom Index
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the organization's assessment of their press freedom records. Small countries, such as Andorra, are excluded from this report...
.
History
Canadian Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, the "Father of Radio Broadcasting", was the first person ever to broadcast a voice by radio waves that were heard by another person. On December 23, 1900, from a site on Cobb Island in the middle of the Potomac RiverPotomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
near Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Fessenden said "one - two - three - four, is it snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen? If it is, would you telegraph back to me?" Mr. Thiessen, one mile away, confirmed, and radio broadcasting was born.
Fessenden presented radio's first program on Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
Eve 1906. With the assistance of his wife Helen, her friend and an assistant, he broadcast from Boston. Wireless operators on ships in the harbour heard the inventor play "O Holy Night
O Holy Night
"O Holy Night" is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" by Placide Cappeau , a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem...
" on his violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and Helen and her friend sing Christmas carols.
The history of Canadian media performers goes back to the first days of radio. In the 1940s an association was formed called the Radio Artists of Toronto Society - RATS. Radio performers in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
also organized to fight for artists' rights, working conditions and better fees. In 1943, the Association of Canadian Radio Artists (ACRA) was formed as a loose national coalition of actors' groups. Over the years, ACRA evolved to become the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists, the Canadian Council of Authors and Artists, the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists and, in 1984, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.
The Canadian Broadcasting Act, historically and in its modern conception, is based on the fact that since the start of the 20th century, it was important for broadcasters to ensure that information flowed freely and reflected the diversity of Canadian points of view, as opposed to the classic approach, which gives media owners more freedom to express their views. "The Canadian broadcasting system as we know it today would probably not exist if we had allowed the marketplace to regulate ownership rights."
Television broadcasting
The Canadian televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcasting industry is split between public and private ownership. Canada currently has 130 originating television stations, which broadcast on 1,456 transmitters across the country, on both the VHF and UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
bands.
In addition to the public Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
/Société Radio-Canada, which operates both English and French television networks, there are four major private TV networks. CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
and Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
broadcast in English, and are available throughout the country. TVA
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
and V broadcast in French and are available over the air only in Quebec (and some communities in Ontario and New Brunswick which are near the Quebec border), although TVA is available across Canada on cable. Radio-Canada (the French division of the CBC), TVA and V function in the particular cultural context of Quebec television. Most network stations are owned and operated by the networks themselves, although all networks have some affiliates with different ownership.
In addition, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is a Canadian broadcast and cable television network. APTN airs and produces programs made by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples...
, a service devoted mainly to programming from the First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
, is considered a network by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, although the network airs terrestrially only in the three Canadian territories, and is available only on cable in most of Canada.
There are, as well, a number of smaller television system
Television system
A television system is a Canadian term for a group of television stations which share common ownership, branding, and programming, but are not considered a full television network....
s:
- CitytvCitytvCitytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
- A
- CTSCrossroads Television SystemCrossroads Television System, or CTS, is a privately held Canadian television system.CTS airs predominantly Christian-based religious programming, most notably 100 Huntley Street, The Michael Coren Show and LIFE Today with James & Betty Robison, as well as other religious and faith based...
- JoytvJoytvJoytv is a privately held Canadian television system owned by ZoomerMedia. Joytv airs a mix of multi-faith and family-oriented programming in the form of dramas, comedies, news magazines, talk shows and more.-History:...
- Omni TelevisionOMNI TelevisionOmni Television, corporately styled as OMNI Television, is a Canadian television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications. It consists of the company's conventional television stations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta which are licensed as multicultural stations...
Several provinces maintain provincial public broadcasting networks in addition to the CBC:
- Télé-QuébecTélé-QuébecTélé-Québec is a French language public educational television network in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known legally as Société de télédiffusion du Québec , it is a provincial crown corporation owned by the Government of Quebec...
- TVOntarioTVOntarioTVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
and TFOTFOTFO is a Canadian French language educational public television network in the province of Ontario. It is the only French-language television network in Canada whose operations are based entirely outside of Quebec.... - Saskatchewan Communications NetworkSaskatchewan Communications NetworkSCN is a Canadian English language cable television entertainment, information, and educational channel in the province of Saskatchewan...
- Knowledge (British Columbia)
Unlike in the United States, where a statewide public network is usually the state's primary PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member station, the provincially-owned public systems in Canada are not CBC affiliates, but distinct networks which offer entirely different programming schedules.
Only CBC/Radio-Canada, TVA and APTN are officially considered national networks by the CRTC, while V is a provincial network in Quebec. CTV and Global are legally considered "television services" even though they operate as networks for all practical purposes.
As well, there are a few independent stations, including CKXT
CKXT-TV
CKXT-DT was a broadcast television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media through its Groupe TVA unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, CFTU
CFTU-TV
CFTU-TV is a Canadian French language educational television station in the province of Quebec, owned by a private consortium known as CANAL, consisting primarily of Quebec-based post-secondary institutions. CFTU currently uses the on-air brand, Canal Savoir...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, CJON
CJON-TV
CJON-DT is a Canadian English language television station broadcasting on channel 21 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, with additional transmitters and cable coverage throughout the province. It is known on-air as NTV, for Newfoundland Television...
in St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
and CJIL
CJIL-TV
CJIL-DT is a Canadian English-language Christian-based television station licensed to and based in Lethbridge, Alberta. CJIL-DT uses the on-air name The Miracle Channel...
in Lethbridge
Lethbridge
Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta's fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the city's...
. However, most of these are not general entertainment stations like independent stations in the United States, but are instead specialty community channels or educational services. CKXT and CJON are the only independent commercial stations currently operating in Canada, although CJON sublicenses a mix of programming from the main commercial networks rather than purchasing program rights independently.
TV station callsigns in Canada are usually made up of four letters, although two stations have three call letters (CKX
CKX-TV
CKX-TV was a television station in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, formerly affiliated with CBC Television. Owned and operated by CTVglobemedia, it was the first privately owned television station in Manitoba...
in Brandon
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance...
and CKY
CKY-TV
CKY-DT is a television station based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and owned by Bell Media. It is part of the CTV Television Network....
in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
) and some (primarily CBC-owned Radio-Canada stations) have five. The first call letter is always C, and callsigns of privately owned television stations start with the two-letter combinations
ITU prefix
The International Telecommunication Union allocates call sign prefixes for radio and television stations of all types. They also form the basis for, but do not exactly match, aircraft registration identifiers. These prefixes are agreed upon internationally, and are a form of country code...
of CF, CH, CI, CJ, or CK. The combinations CG, CY, CZ and several combinations beginning with V and X are also assigned to Canada, but to date no Canadian television station has ever been licensed to take a call sign within those ranges.
CBC-owned stations use call letters beginning with the combination CB (through a special agreement with the government of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
); private affiliates of the CBC use the same combinations as other private stations. The CBC has also sometimes directly acquired former private affiliate stations; these usually (although not always) retain their historic call sign rather than changing to a CB call.
While Canadian TV stations are technically required to identify themselves over the air by their call letters, the rule is rarely enforced by the CRTC. As a result, many TV stations never use their call letters for any purpose other than official CRTC business, and are instead identified by a brand such as CTV Northern Ontario
CTV Northern Ontario
CTV Northern Ontario, formerly known as MCTV, is a system of four television stations in Northern Ontario, Canada, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network, a division of Bell Media.These stations are:...
, OMNI.1
CFMT-TV
CFMT-DT, channel 47, is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with rebroadcasters in Ottawa and London. The station broadcasts multicultural programming targeting European and Latin American communities throughout Southern Ontario. Part of the Omni Television group of stations...
or Global BC
CHAN-TV
CHAN-DT is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, broadcasting over-the-air on digital channel 22, and available via cable providers in the area on channel 11. Owned by Shaw Communications as a part of its Shaw Media division, it is the West Coast flagship station of the...
.
There is no clear rule for the call letters of rebroadcasters—some are labelled by the call-letters of the originating station, followed by a number, while others have their own distinct call letters. Low-power repeater transmitters (LPRTs) have their own unique callsign format, which consists of the letters CH followed by four numbers. Some rebroadcast transmitters are licensed as semi-satellites, which are licensed to air separate commercials (and, on rarer occasions, a limited amount of distinct programming) targeted to their community of license.
Canada also has a large number of cable channels. For a more extensive list of Canadian TV broadcast outlets, see List of Canadian television channels.
Although all broadcast networks in Canada are required to produce and air some Canadian content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
, only the English and French networks of the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
run predominantly Canadian-produced schedules. (The English network does run some imported programming, such as Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
, the game shows Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
and Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, and strip reruns of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and Arrested Development.) Both CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
and Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
have at times faced criticism over their level of commitment to producing and airing Canadian programming. Both networks often find it easier to purchase rights to hit American series than to invest in Canadian productions, which are often prohibitively costly for the comparatively small size of the Canadian market. The French-language networks traditionally have had less difficulty meeting their Canadian content obligations, as the language difference makes Francophone audiences much more readily receptive to home-grown programming than to dubbed American imports.
Digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
is an emerging technology in Canada. Although some TV stations have begun broadcasting digital signals in addition to their regular VHF or UHF broadcasts, this is not yet as widespread as in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Although most markets have digital channel assignments already in place, to date digital broadcasts have only launched in the largest metropolitan area
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
s. Digital television sets are available in Canadian stores, but are not widely owned by consumers at this time.
Several broadcasters, including the CBC, have argued that there is no viable business case for a comprehensive digital conversion strategy in Canada. At CRTC hearings in 2007 on the future direction of regulatory policy for television, broadcasters proposed a number of strategies, including funding digital conversion by eliminating restrictions on the amount of advertising that television broadcasters are permitted to air, allowing terrestrial broadcasters to charge cable viewers a subscription fee similar to that already charged by cable specialty channels, permitting license fee
License fee
License fee may mean:*a fee paid for a license in general*a fee paid for a television licence...
s similar to those which fund the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, or eliminating terrestrial television broadcasting entirely and moving to an exclusively cable-based distribution model.
In May 2007, the CRTC set August 31, 2011 as the deadline for digital conversion in Canada. This is approximately two years later than the cutoff date in the United States. The CRTC ultimately decided to relax restrictions on advertising as the funding mechanism. However, a CRTC statement issued in June 2008 indicated that as of that date, only 22 digital transmitters had been fully installed across the entire country, and expressed the regulator's concern that Canada's television broadcasters were not adequately preparing for the shift to digital broadcasting.
Cable television
Cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
is a very common method of television programming delivery in Canada. Many Canadian cities have cable penetration rates of 90 per cent or more of television households.
There are currently 739 licensed cable distributors in Canada. This significant decline from over 2000 just a few years ago is attributable both to major cable companies acquiring smaller distributors and to a recent change in CRTC rules by which independent cable operators with fewer than 2,000 subscribers are no longer required to operate under full CRTC licenses. (However, the CRTC does retain some regulatory authority over these operators. This is an exemption granted by the CRTC to previously licensed companies that continue to meet certain conditions, and does not mean that anybody can simply set up their own small cable company without CRTC approval.)
Major Canadian cable companies include Rogers
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
, Shaw, Cogeco
Cogeco
Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian media and communications company. The name is an acronym for Compagnie Générale de Communication .-History:...
, Vidéotron
Vidéotron
Vidéotron GP is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Currently, the company primarily serves Quebec, as well as the francophone...
and EastLink
EastLink (company)
EastLink is a Canadian cable television and telecommunications company. In 1970, EastLink was established in Amherst, Nova Scotia, when it was issued one of the first cable licences granted by the CRTC...
/Persona. Most Canadian cities are served by only one cable company per market; in the few cities that are served by more than one cable company, each company is restricted to a specific geographical division within the market. For instance, in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Cogeco Cable, Mountain Cablevision
Mountain Cablevision
Mountain Cable was one of three cable television service providers for the city of Hamilton, Ontario and its surrounding area. The other two providers are Cogeco and Source Cable...
and Source Cable
Source Cable
Source Cable is one of three main Cable television service providers for the city of Hamilton, Ontario. The other two are Shaw Communications and Cogeco...
are all licensed operators, but each has a monopoly in a specific area of the city.
However, two major companies offer direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
delivery as an alternative to cable: Bell TV, which is a division of BCE Inc., and Shaw Direct, which is a division of Shaw Cable. Grey market
Grey market
A grey market or gray market also known as parallel market is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer...
DBS dishes can also be obtained from American services such as DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
and Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
, but as these are not licensed Canadian providers, stores that sell those packages—and users who buy them—are at risk of criminal charges.
In some remote communities in the Territories (Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
, Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
, Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
), cable delivery is prohibitively costly, so similar services are offered through MMDS technology.
A basic cable package in English Canada traditionally includes:
- the major Canadian commercial networks (CTVCTV television networkCTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
and GlobalGlobal Television NetworkGlobal Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
), - the English and French CBC networks, including NewsworldCBC NewsworldCBC News Network is a Canadian English language Category C specialty news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and...
and RDIRéseau de l'informationRéseau de l'information is a Canadian French language Category C news channel operated by CBC/Radio-Canada. RDI began broadcasting on January 1, 1995, and is considered the French-language equivalent of the CBC News Network, also owned by the CBC....
(the French-language Newsworld equivalent), - the provincial educational broadcast undertaking (if one is available, as not all provinces have one),
- a community channel (locally-produced public affairs and information programming and community events listings),
- APTNAboriginal Peoples Television NetworkAboriginal Peoples Television Network is a Canadian broadcast and cable television network. APTN airs and produces programs made by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples...
, a network devoted to AboriginalAboriginal peoples in CanadaAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
programming, - TVATVA (TV network)TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
, one of the two private French-language broadcasters in Quebec1, - local or regional independent stations such as CitytvCitytvCitytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
, A-Channel and CH, - Cable Public Affairs Channel, which broadcasts parliamentaryParliament of CanadaThe Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
sessions and committee meetings, along with some political public affairs programming, - a similar channel broadcasting the proceedings of the provincial legislature,
- American network affiliates of ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
and Fox2, - a mixture of Canadian and American special interest channels such as TSNThe Sports NetworkThe Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
, MuchMusicMuchMusicMuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
, CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, CTV News Channel and ShowcaseShowcase TelevisionShowcase is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Shaw Media. Showcase is a predominantly fiction-based service centred around scripted television series and films....
3.
A further set of Canadian and American special interest channels are offered as extended cable packages, which are available for additional fees. In the past, cable companies have engaged in the controversial practice of negative option billing
Negative option billing
Negative option billing is a business practice in which goods or services are provided automatically, and the customer must either pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing....
, in which a subscriber is automatically given and billed for the new services unless he or she specifically declines them, but this is now illegal.
As well, a package of pay TV channels is also available for further fees, including movie networks such as The Movie Network
The Movie Network
The Movie Network is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service, owned by Astral Media. The service is licensed to operate east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories...
, Movie Central
Movie Central
Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...
, Super Channel and Super Écran
Super Écran
Super Écran is a Canadian French language Category A premium television service that broadcasts nationally via satellite or cable subscribers. The network is owned by Astral Media...
, and American superstation
Superstation
Superstation in United States television can have several meanings. In its most precise meaning, a superstation is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as "A television broadcast station, other than a network station, licensed by the FCC that is secondarily transmitted by a satellite...
s such as WSBK
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
, WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
, WGN
Superstation WGN
WGN America is a Chicago-based American superstation feed of WGN-TV, owned by Tribune Broadcasting. WGN America offers its national programming across North America without the CW network programming and most syndicated programs that are carried on the Chicago area feed...
and KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
(which are often CW or MyNetworkTV affiliates.) These services, however, require a descrambler box.
Cable companies now offer digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
packages in most Canadian cities, including a number of channels which have been licensed exclusively for digital package distribution. Digital cable also typically includes a range of audio broadcast services such as Galaxie and Max Trax. In some markets, digital cable service may also include local radio stations; where this is offered, it has largely replaced the availability of cable FM service. Digital cable, however, is provided only if a customer chooses to subscribe to that package.
Although this is sometimes controversial, Canadian cable companies are required by the CRTC to practice simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...
when a Canadian channel and a non-Canadian channel (which is usually American) are airing the same program at the same time. Programming on an American service may also be blocked if it has significant bearing on a Canadian legal matter (one episode of Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, inspired by the trials of Paul Bernardo
Paul Bernardo
Paul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale , is a Canadian serial killer and rapist, known for the sexual assaults and murders he committed with his wife Karla Homolka and the serial rapes he committed in Scarborough.-Early life:Bernardo's mother, Marilyn, was the adopted daughter of a...
and Karla Homolka
Karla Homolka
Karla Leanne Homolka, also known as Karla Leanne Teale , is a Canadian serial killer. She attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter following a plea bargain in the 1991 and 1992 rape-murders of two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as...
, was blocked in Canada) or if it interferes with a Canadian channel's broadcast rights (such as James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movies airing on Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
; the Canadian broadcast rights are held by Bell Globemedia
Bell Globemedia
Bell Media is the mass media subsidiary of BCE . Its operations include television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , Digital Media, and Internet properties.Bell Media is the successor-in-interest to Baton Broadcasting...
.)
Many cable companies also offer high speed cable Internet
Cable internet
In telecommunications, cable Internet access, often shortened to cable Internet or simply cable, is a form of broadband Internet access that uses the cable television infrastructure. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable Internet access provides network edge...
service.
Radio broadcasting
Canada is served by almost 2000 radio stations, on both the AM and FM bands.As with television stations, radio callsigns in Canada are made up of four letters beginning with the two-letter combinations
ITU prefix
The International Telecommunication Union allocates call sign prefixes for radio and television stations of all types. They also form the basis for, but do not exactly match, aircraft registration identifiers. These prefixes are agreed upon internationally, and are a form of country code...
of CF, CH, CI, CJ, or CK, although a few stations use three-letter callsigns. In addition to private stations CKX
CKX-FM
CKX-FM is the call sign of a Canadian radio station operating in Brandon, Manitoba. CKX-FM operates at 96.1 FM, broadcasting a mainstream rock format under the brand name KX96.-History:...
and CKY
CKY-FM
CKY-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts a adult contemporary format on 102.3 FM in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is owned by Rogers Radio, and shares studios with sister station CITI-FM. CKY-FM competes with Hot 103 and Energy 106.-History:...
, some CBC stations have three-letter callsigns, generally in major cities where the stations first aired in the 1930s. Newer CBC stations have normal four-letter callsigns, however. As with CBC television, CBC radio uses callsigns beginning with CB, through a special arrangement with the government of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. A few exceptions, such as CKSB
CKSB (AM)
CKSB is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 1050 AM and 90.5 FM in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is an affiliate of Radio-Canada's Première Chaîne network.-History:...
in Winnipeg and CJBC
CJBC (AM)
-External links:* * * at Canadian Communications Foundation...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, exist where the CBC acquired an existing station with a historically significant callsign.
The combinations CG, CY, CZ and several combinations beginning with V and X are also assigned to Canada. Only four Canadian radio stations, all in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
, have taken call signs in those ranges. Three of these stations, VOAR
VOAR (AM)
VOAR is a Canadian radio station, which airs religious programming in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador on 1210 kHz and various FM frequencies.The station first broadcast in the fall of 1929...
, VOWR and VOCM
VOCM (AM)
VOCM is an AM radio station in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, broadcasting at 590 kHz. Owned by Newcap Radio, VOCM first went on the air in 1936. October 19, 2011 marks 75 years of broadcasting for VOCM...
, began broadcasting before Newfoundland was a Canadian province, and retained their VO call letters when Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
in 1949. The other station, VOCM-FM
VOCM-FM
VOCM-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 97.5 MHz from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is part of the Newcap Radio group. Presently the station is branded as 97-5 K-Rock and broadcasts a classic rock format, although some recent rock songs have lately become part of the...
, adopted the callsign in 1981 because of its ownership association with VOCM. With the exception of VOCM-FM, radio stations licensed in Newfoundland after 1949 use the same CF-CK range as other Canadian stations.
The future of VO callsigns in Canada is unknown. It would not be at all unusual for Industry Canada
Industry Canada
Industry Canada is the department of the Government of Canada with responsibility for regional economic development, investment, and innovation/research and development. The department employs 6104 FTEs across Canada....
to simplify all callsigns used in Canada as part of the ongoing modernization and simplification of domestic telecom regulations.
There is no clear rule for the call letters of repeater stations—some repeaters are labelled by the call-letters of the originating station, followed by a number, while others have their own distinct call letters. Low-power repeater transmitters (LPRTs) have their own unique callsign format, which consists of the letters VE or VF followed by four numbers.
As of 2010, the five largest major commercial radio broadcast groups in Canada are; Astral Media
Astral Media
Astral Media Inc. is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 83 radio stations in eight provinces, and is a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Teletoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV,...
, Newcap Broadcasting
Newcap Broadcasting
Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited is a major Canadian broadcasting company, majority-owned by Harold R. Steele. Newfoundland Capital is the parent company of Newcap Inc. . It is currently the number two private-sector radio broadcaster in Canada, just behind Astral Media...
, Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
, Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment conglomerate.Corus is a leading Canadian specialty television and radio producer, with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's...
, and Bell Media. However, many smaller broadcasters operate radio stations as well. Most genres of music are represented on the Canadian commercial radio spectrum, including pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and classical. News, sports, talk radio and religious stations are also available in many cities. In addition, many Canadian universities and colleges have licensed campus radio
Campus radio
Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
stations, and some communities also have community radio
Community radio
Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...
stations or Christian radio stations licensed to non-profit groups or co-operatives.
As well, the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
operates four national radio networks, two each in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. The English Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
and the French Première Chaîne provide news and information programming to most communities in Canada, regardless of size, on either the AM or FM band. The English Radio 2 and French Espace musique
Espace musique
Espace musique is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation...
provide arts and culture programming, including classical music and opera, and are always on FM, generally serving larger communities only.
Music-based commercial radio stations in Canada are mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to reserve at least 35 per cent of their playlists for Canadian content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
, although exemptions are granted in some border cities (e.g. Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
) where the competition from American stations threatens the survival of Canadian broadcasters, and for stations whose formats may not have enough Canadian recordings available to meet the 35 per cent target (e.g. classical, jazz or pop standards).
In recent years, a notable trend in Canadian radio has been the gradual abandonment of the AM band, with many AM stations applying for and receiving authorization from the CRTC to convert to the FM band. In some Canadian cities, in fact, the AM band is now either nearly or entirely vacant. Because Canada is more sparsely populated than the United States, the limitations of AM broadcasting (particularly at night, when the AM dial is often overwhelmed by distant signals) have a much more pronounced effect on Canadian broadcasters. AM radio stations have the additional protection that cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
companies which offer cable FM services are required by the CRTC to distribute all locally-available AM stations through conversion to a cable FM signal, but cable FM only accounts for a small percentage of radio listeners in Canada.
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
, or DAB, is an emerging technology in Canada. Although there are currently 73 licensed digital audio broadcasters in Canada, not many consumers yet own digital radios, and the existing digital audio broadcast signals duplicate AM or FM broadcasts. No Canadian radio broadcaster currently offers an exclusively DAB signal.
On November 1, 2004, the CRTC began hearing applications for satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
services. Three applications were filed: one by XM Radio Canada
XM Radio Canada
XM Radio Canada was the operating name of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. , a Canadian communications and media company, which was incorporated in 2002 to broadcast satellite radio in Canada...
, one by Sirius Canada
Sirius Canada
Sirius Canada is a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005 to introduce satellite radio service to Canada.On November 24, 2010, following...
, and one by the partnership of CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
and Astral Media
Astral Media
Astral Media Inc. is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 83 radio stations in eight provinces, and is a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Teletoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV,...
. These services, which were approved by the CRTC on June 16, 2005, were Canada's first official satellite radio services, although a small grey market
Grey market
A grey market or gray market also known as parallel market is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer...
already existed for American satellite radio receivers. Sirius and XM both launched in December 2005. The CHUM-Astral service, however, was never launched, and its license expired on June 16, 2007; CHUM stated that its business plan was based in part on the expectation that in the interests of Canadian content, the CRTC would have rejected the Sirius and XM applications, approving only the CHUM-Astral service. The two active services, XM and Sirius, merged into Sirius XM Canada
Sirius XM Canada
Sirius XM Canada is a Canadian radio broadcasting company, which operates as a Canadian affiliate of Sirius XM Radio. The company received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on April 11, 2011 to merge the formerly distinct XM Radio Canada and Sirius Canada...
in 2011, several months after a similar merger between their American counterparts.
Newspapers
Almost all Canadian cities are served by at least one daily newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, along with community and neighbourhood weeklies. In large cities which have more than one daily newspaper, usually at least one daily is a tabloid format. Bilingual cities like Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
have important papers in both French and English.
Canada currently has two major "national" newspapers, The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
and the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
. Le Devoir
Le Devoir
Le Devoir is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It was founded by journalist, politician, and nationalist Henri Bourassa in 1910....
, though not widely read outside Quebec, is the French-language counterpart to the national newspapers.
The newspaper with the highest circulation overall is the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, while the newspaper with the highest readership per capita is the Windsor Star
Windsor Star
The Windsor Star is the regional newspaper of Windsor, Ontario , and is owned by the Postmedia Network Inc. Since 1923, the publication's main office is located at 167 Ferry Street in the downtown area...
(with the Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
running a very close second).
Canadian newspapers are mostly owned by large chains. The largest of these is the CanWest News Service
CanWest News Service
Postmedia News is a national news agency with correspondents in Canada, Europe, and the United States and is part of the Canadian newspaper chain owned by Postmedia Network Inc.-History:...
chain, owned by CanWest. Quebecor
Quebecor
Quebecor Inc. is a communications company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded by Pierre Péladeau, and remains run by his family. Quebecor Inc. owns 55% of Quebecor Media Inc...
owns many tabloid newspapers through its Sun Media
Sun Media
Sun Media Corporation is the owner of several widely read tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of Sun News Network...
subsidiary, including Le Journal de Montréal
Le Journal de Montréal
Le Journal de Montréal is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is the largest-circulation French-language newspaper in North America. Established by Pierre Péladeau in 1964, it is owned by the Sun Media division of Quebecor Media. It is also Canada's largest tabloid...
and the Toronto Sun
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
.
At various times there have been concerns about concentration of newspaper ownership, notably in 1970 and 1980 with two commissions, the Davey Committee
Keith Davey
Keith Douglas Davey, was a Canadian politician, Senator, and campaign organizer.Born in Toronto to Charles Minto Davey and Grace Viola , Keith Davey attended high school at North Toronto Collegiate Institute...
on combines and the Kent Royal Commission on Newspapers
Royal Commission on Newspapers
The Royal Commission on Newspapers, popularly known as the Kent Commission, was a Canadian Royal Commission chaired by Tom Kent. It was created in 1980 in response to growing concerns over concentration of media ownership in Canada...
respectively, and most recently when Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...
's Hollinger
Hollinger
Hollinger may refer to:*Hollinger Inc., the Canadian holding company that owns the Sun-Times Media Group.*Hollinger International, the former name of the Sun-Times Media Group.*Hollinger Mines, a Canadian mining company...
acquired the Southam newspapers in the late 1990s. When Hollinger sold its Canadian properties, however, many of their smaller-market newspapers were in fact purchased by a variety of new ownership groups such as Osprey Media
Osprey Media
Osprey Media was a Canadian newspaper regional chain that published 20 daily newspapers, 34 non-daily newspapers, and a number of shopping guides and magazines in the Canadian province of Ontario...
, increasing the diversity of newspaper ownership for the first time in many years.
The 1980s and 1990s have seen the emergence of city-based alternative weekly
Alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
newspapers, geared toward a younger audience with coverage of the arts and alternative news. In recent years, many of these weeklies have also been acquired or driven out of business by conglomerates like Canwest, Quebecor
Quebecor
Quebecor Inc. is a communications company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded by Pierre Péladeau, and remains run by his family. Quebecor Inc. owns 55% of Quebecor Media Inc...
and Brunswick News
Brunswick News
Brunswick News Inc. is a Canadian newspaper publishing company based in Moncton, New Brunswick. It is privately owned by James K. Irving.-Newspapers:...
. Smaller newspapers like The Dominion
The Dominion (newspaper)
The Dominion is a monthly newspaper and web site in Canada.The Dominion is published by the Dominion Newspaper Society, a non-profit organization...
, publishing primarily online but in a newspaper format, have attempted to fill gaps in Canada's journalistic coverage while avoiding the vulnerabilities of the previous generation of alternative media
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
.
In the 2000s, a number of online news and culture magazines have launched to provide alternative sources of journalism
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
. Some important online publications include rabble.ca, The Tyee
The Tyee
The Tyee is an independent Canadian online web magazine, which focuses on coverage of news and media issues in British Columbia.The Tyee was launched in November 2003 by David Beers, a journalist who had previously been associated with the Vancouver Sun...
, Vigile, CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...
/Bande à part
Bande à part (radio)
Bande à part is the name of a website and a Sirius Satellite Radio station in Canada that are devoted primarily to French Canadian arts and music....
and SooToday.com
SooToday.com
SooToday.com is a regional news website in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.The site was created in 2000 as a regional tabloid shopping and business directory...
.
Motion pictures
Most of Canada's film (and television) industry produces output geared towards mainstream North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n audiences, with Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. was a Toronto-based media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Shannon and Sydney.Alliance Atlantis was acquired by Canwest...
and Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
in particular enjoying significant successes in recent years. Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
are major production centres, with Vancouver being the second largest film and television production centre in North America (after Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
). The Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
is considered one of the most important events in North American film, showcasing both Canadian talent and Hollywood films.
Alliance Atlantis has become by far the largest and most successful Canadian film studio, both as a film and television production house (the company's television properties include Due South
Due South
Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...
, This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...
and C.S.I.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
), and as the major Canadian distributor of independent American and international films. Lions Gate Entertainment has also become a major player in recent years.
Canada also produces films of a characteristically "Canadian" nature, and of all Canadian cultural industries, this segment of the film industry has the hardest time escaping the shadow of its (North) American counterpart. Between the marketing budgets of mainstream films, and the largely American-controlled film distribution networks, it has been nearly impossible for most distinctively Canadian films to break through to a wide audience. In many Canadian cities, in fact, moviegoers don't even have the option of seeing such films, as there aren't any theatres showing them. As a result, a Canadian film is usually considered a runaway hit if it makes as little as $1 million at the box office.
French Canadian films, on the other hand, are often more successful—as with French-language television, the language difference makes Quebec audiences much more receptive to Canadian-produced film. In most years, the top-grossing Canadian film is a French-language film from Quebec.
As a result of the economic challenges involved in Canadian film production, film funding is often provided by government bodies such as Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....
, and CBC television is often a Canadian film's most lucrative potential market. However, there is an established network of film festivals which also provide important marketing and audience opportunities for Canadian films. In addition to Toronto's film festival, the smaller Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...
features films from around the world, and festivals in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and Greater Sudbury, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
—among other cities—are also important opportunities for Canadian filmmakers to gain exposure among more populist film audiences.
One particular film production house, the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
, has become internationally famous for its animation and documentary production.
Books
Canada's most famous book publisher is McClelland and StewartMcClelland and Stewart
McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is partially owned by Random House of Canada, now a subsidiary of Bertelsmann....
, which made its name in the 1970s as the leading publisher of English language Canadian literature
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is literature originating from Canada. Collectively it is often called CanLit. Some criticism of Canadian literature has focused on nationalistic and regional themes, although this is only a small portion of Canadian Literary criticism...
. English Canada also has many smaller publishing houses, including Coach House Press, the Porcupine's Quill
The Porcupine's Quill
The Porcupine's Quill is an independent Canadian publishing company located in Erin, Ontario. The Porcupine's Quill publishes contemporary Canadian literature, including poetry, fiction, art and literary criticism...
, House of Anansi, Key Porter Books
Key Porter Books
Key Porter Books is a Canadian book publishing company. Founded in 1979 by Canadian publisher Anna Porter and Key Publishers Limited of Toronto, the company specializes in Canadian non-fiction, although it has published some fiction titles as well. A controlling share of the company was purchased...
, Hidden Brook Press, and Douglas & McIntyre
Douglas & McIntyre
Douglas & McIntyre is an independent Canadian publishing company founded in 1971. They are the publishers for such noted authors as Margaret Atwood and Douglas Coupland; poet Lorna Crozier; actress Kim Cattrall; chef John Bishop; and politician Mike Harcourt...
. Numerous American and British publishers, including Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
and Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, also have Canadian divisions.
Major francophone publishers in Quebec include Bibliothèque québécoise, Alire, Québec-Amérique, Éditions Guérin and Groupe Beauchemin. Several small francophone publishers also operate outside of Quebec, including Éditions Le Nordir and Prise de parole
Prise de parole
Prise de parole is a Canadian book publishing company.Located in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, the company publishes Franco-Ontarian literature...
.
Canada's largest English science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genre publisher is EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, which now also owns the Tesseract Books imprint, well known for producing excellent Canadian speculative fiction.
Magazines
Magazines published in Canada include:- L'ActualitéL'actualitéL'actualité is a Canadian French-language news and general interest magazine published in Montreal by Les Éditions Rogers, which is owned by Rogers Communications. The magazine has over a million readers, according to Canada's Print Measurement Bureau, from its circulation which is mainly...
- AdBustersAdBustersThe Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...
- Auto AtlanticAuto AtlanticAuto Atlantic is an Atlantic Canada-based automotive industry magazine.Auto Atlantic magazine is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Published six times per year, and distributed to 8000 subscribers mainly in the four Atlantic provinces Auto Atlantic is an Atlantic Canada-based automotive...
- East Coast Auto magazine - CahootsCahoots (magazine)Cahoots is an independent women's magazine, published in Canada. It was founded in 2005 by Carla Atherton and Michele Rowe, who remain as the magazine's managing editor and editor, respectively.-Origins:...
- Canadian BusinessCanadian BusinessCanadian Business is the longest-publishing business magazine in Canada. It was founded in 1928 as The Commerce of the Nation, the organ of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. The magazine was renamed Canadian Business in 1933...
- Canadian DimensionCanadian DimensionCanadian Dimension is a Canadian leftist magazine founded in 1963 by Cy Gonick, and published out of Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 times a year, with a circulation of 3,000 copies....
- Canadian GeographicCanadian GeographicCanadian Geographic is the bimonthly magazine of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society . It was first published in May 1930 under the name Canadian Geographical Journal. The society's objective was to produce a popular magazine dealing primarily with Canadian geography...
- Canadian LivingCanadian LivingCanadian Living is a monthly Canadian lifestyle magazine, which publishes articles relating to food, fashion, crafts, and health and family advice....
- ChartChart (magazine)ChartAttack is a Canadian online music publication. Formerly a monthly print magazine called Chart, which was published from 1991 to 2009, the web version continues operation....
- ChatelaineChatelaine (magazine)Chatelaine is an English-language Canadian magazine of women's lifestyles. Both Chatelaine and its French-language version, Châtelaine, are published monthly by Rogers Media, Inc., a division of Rogers Communications, Inc...
- Women's magazine - chickaDEEChickadee (magazine)Chickadee is a Canadian children's magazine. It was founded in 1979 as a spin-off of OWL Magazine geared towards younger readers....
- Enterprise MagEnterprise MagReaching Canada's Small & Medium EnterprisesEnterprise Magazine launched in 1998 as Small Business Canada Magazine. The name change to Enterprise was made in January 2005 as its readership grew to include small and medium-sized enterprises across Canada.Based in Barrie, Ontario, Enterprise is...
- Exclaim!Exclaim!Exclaim! is a monthly Canadian music magazine that features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with special focus on Canadian and cutting-edge artists...
- Family Health & Life Magazine
- FlareFlare (magazine)Flare is a Canadian fashion magazine. It is owned by Rogers Communications.Flare magazine was created in 1979, as a rebranding of Miss Chatelaine magazine. Flare promotes itself as "Canada's Fashion magazine"...
- Fashion - FrankFrank (magazine)Frank is a bi-weekly Canadian scandal or satirical magazine published since 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.A separate publication in Ottawa, Ontario, of the same name was published from 1989 to 2004 and then revived from 2005 to 2008...
- Satirical - GeistGeist (magazine)Geist is Canada's most widely read literary magazine. Geist is published four times a year in Vancouver since 1990. The magazine takes its name from the German word geist, meaning "mind" or "spirit."...
- Literary Review of CanadaLiterary Review of CanadaThe Literary Review of Canada is a Canadian magazine that publishes ten times a year. The magazine publishes essays and reviews of books on political, cultural and social topics, as well as Canadian poetry...
- Maclean'sMaclean'sMaclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
- MaisonneuveMaisonneuve (magazine)Maisonneuve is a general interest magazine based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It publishes eclectic stories of national and international scope on the arts, culture and politics. Established in 2002 by Derek Webster, the magazine is named after Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal...
- MoneySenseMoneySenseMoneySense is a Canadian financial magazine owned by Rogers Communications.-External links:*...
- OWL
- Saturday NightSaturday Night (magazine)Saturday Night was a Canadian general interest magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887.The publication was first established as a weekly broadsheet newspaper about public affairs and the arts, which was later expanded into a general interest magazine. The editor, Edmund E. Sheppard,...
- Toronto LifeToronto LifeToronto Life is a monthly Canadian magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto Life also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including Home Decor, Stylebook, Eating & Drinking, Real Estate and Weddings. Established in 1966,...
- This MagazineThis MagazineThis Magazine is an independent alternative Canadian political magazine. It was launched "by a gang of school activists" in 1966 as This Magazine is About Schools, a journal covering political issues in the education system...
- UMMUrban Male MagazineUrban Male Magazine is a Canadian's men's interest magazine....
- The WalrusThe WalrusThe Walrus is a Canadian general interest magazine which publishes long form journalism on Canadian and international affairs, along with fiction and poetry by Canadian writers. It launched in September 2003, as an attempt to create a Canadian equivalent to American magazines such as Harper's, The...
A notable controversy in Canadian magazine publishing in recent years has been the existence of split run magazines, where a title published in another country, such as TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
or Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, is republished in Canada with a few pages of special Canadian content, in order to take advantage of Canadian advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
sales revenues. The government of Canada imposed a special excise tax on split run publications in 1995 to discourage the practice, although this continues to be controversial.
See also
- Concentration of media ownership in Canada
- Media ownership in CanadaMedia ownership in CanadaMedia ownership in Canada is governed by the CRTC. The CRTC does not regulate ownership of newspapers or Internet media, although ownership in those media may be taken into consideration in decisions pertaining to a licensee's broadcasting operations....
External links
- Television: Channel Canada, Canadian Cable and Satellite Database.
- Film: The Great Canadian Guide to Movies and TV.
- Magazines: Finding Canadian Magazines - Journalism.Net.
- Newspaper: The Canadian Newspaper Association,ThePaperboy.com Canadian Newspapers.
- Newspapers from List of Newspapers - Online Newspapers Directory
- CBC Digital Archives - Concentration to Convergence: Media Ownership in Canada
- Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
- broadcasting-history.ca Canadian Communications FoundationCanadian Communications FoundationThe Canadian Communications Foundation is a history of Canadian broadcasting for radio and television chronicles and documents. It also provides a history of radio and television stations, including networks, programs, broadcasters and many others....
- Canadian Media History sources: Media History in Canada bibliographic database